A study on TPP

A study on TPP(Trans Pacific Partnership)
Author: B.Srisundar., MBA.NET(Ph.D) Asst.Professor, Dept. of BBA, Annai College of Arts & Science, Kumbakonam.
Co-Author: D.Rajeshwari, III BBA, Annai College of Arts & Science, Kumbakonam.
Abstract:
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a trade agreement among twelve pacific countries concerning a variety of
matters of economic policy, which was reached on 5 October 2015 after 7 years of negotiations. The agreement's stated goal
had been to "promote economic growth; support the creation and retention of jobs; enhance innovation, productivity and
competitiveness; raise living standards; reduce poverty in the countries; and promote transparency, good governance, and
enhanced labor and environmental protections. Among other things, the TPP Agreement contains measures to lower trade
barriers such as tariffs, and establish an investor-dispute settlement mechanism. This paper is been concentrated on various
implications, scope, features and criticisms of TPP.
History:
 Historically, the TPP is an expansion of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPSEP or
P4), which was signed by Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore in 2005.
 Beginning in 2008, additional countries joined the discussion for a broader agreement: Australia, Canada, Japan,
Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the United States, and Vietnam, bringing the total number of participating countries in the
negotiations to twelve.
 Although original and negotiating parties are members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the
TPSEP is not an APEC initiative. However, the TPP is considered to be a pathfinder for the proposed Free Trade
Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP), an APEC initiative.
 The first round of TPP negotiations was held in Melbourne in March 2010.
 Participating nations aimed at completing negotiations in 2012, but contentious issues such as agriculture,
intellectual property, and services and investments prolonged negotiations.
 Participating nations aimed at completing negotiations in 2012, but contentious issues such as agriculture,
intellectual property, and services and investments prolonged negotiations. They finally reached agreement on 5
October 2015.
 "A version of the text of the treaty "Subject to Legal Review (...) for Accuracy, Clarity and Consistency" was made
public on 5 November 2015.
 Being a participant in TPP negotiations since the beginning has enabled Australia to seize a strategic opportunity to
shape the rules that will govern trade in the region.
TPP Membership:
Twelve countries participated in negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Australia, Brunei,

Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.
 The four parties to the 2005 Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement in 2006, and eight others.
 These parties support expanding TPP membership to other economies in the Asia-Pacific region.
 Prospective new members must demonstrate a commitment to achieving an ambitious, comprehensive outcome in
the TPP.
 Decisions on TPP membership are taken by a consensus of the existing parties.
 Other countries interested in TPP membership have included Taiwan, the Philippines, and Colombia, as of 2010,
Thailand and Lao as of 2012, Indonesia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and India as of 2013. According to law professor
Edmund Sim in 2013, many of these countries needed to change their protectionist trade policies in order to join
the TPP.
Country/region Status 2005 agreement Status TPP Announced Interest
Columbia Non-party Announced Interest January 2010
Indonesia Non-party Declared Intent to Join October 2015
Philippines Non-party Announced Interest September 2010
South Korea Non-party Announced Interest November 2013
Taiwan Non-party Announced Interest September 2013
Thailand Non-party Announced Interest November 2012
 In October 2015 Indonesian President Joko Widodo declared Indonesia's intention to join the TPP
Current Members:
Country/region Status 2005 agreement Status TPP
Start of TPP
Negotiations
Singapore Party (28 May 2006) Agreement reached February 2008
Brunei Party (28 May 2006) Agreement reached February 2008
New Zealand Party (12 July 2006) Agreement reached February 2008
Chile Party (8 November 2006) Agreement reached February 2008
United States Non-party Agreement reached February 2008
Australia Non-party Agreement reached November 2008
Peru Non-party Agreement reached November 2008
Vietnam Non-party Agreement reached November 2008
Malaysia Non-party Agreement reached October 2010
Mexico Non-party Agreement reached October 2012
Canada Non-party Agreement reached October 2012
Japan Non-party Agreement reached May 2013
Scope:
 The TPP includes 30 chapters covering trade and trade-related issues, beginning with trade in goods and continuing
through customs and trade facilitation; sanitary and Phytosanitary measures; technical barriers to trade ; trade
remedies; investment; services; electronic commerce; government procurement; intellectual property; labour;
environment; ‘horizontal’ chapters meant to ensure that TPP fulfills its potential for development, competitiveness,
and inclusiveness; dispute settlement, exceptions, and institutional provisions.
 In addition to updating traditional approaches to issues covered by previous free trade agreements (FTAs), the TPP
incorporates new and emerging trade issues and cross-cutting issues. These include issues related to the Internet
and the digital economy, the participation of state-owned enterprises in international trade and investment, the
ability of small businesses to take advantage of trade agreements, and other topics.
 TPP unites a diverse group of countries – diverse by geography, language and history, size, and levels of
development. All TPP countries recognize that diversity is a unique asset, but also one which requires close
cooperation, capacity-building for the lesser-developed TPP countries, and in some cases special transitional
periods and mechanisms which offer some TPP partners additional time, where warranted, to develop capacity to

implement new obligations.
Features:
The TPP agreement includes 30 chapters: Initial Provisions and General Definitions, Trade in Goods, Textiles and
Apparel, Rules of Origin, Customs Administration and Trade Facilitation, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical
Barriers to Trade, Trade Remedies, Investment, Cross-Border Trade in Services, Financial Services, Temporary Entry for
Business Persons, Telecommunications, Electronic Commerce, Government Procurement, Competition Policy, State-Owned
Enterprises and Designated Monopolies, Intellectual Property, Labour, Environment, Cooperation and Capacity Building,
Competitiveness and Business Facilitation, Development, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Regulatory Coherence,
Transparency and Anti-Corruption, Administrative and Institutional Provisions, Dispute Settlement, Exceptions, Final
Provisions. The following are some of the important features:
 Comprehensive market access: The TPP eliminates or reduces tariff and non-tariff barriers across substantially all
trade in goods and services and covers the full spectrum of trade, including goods and services trade and
investment, so as to create new opportunities and benefits for our businesses, workers, and consumers.
 Regional approach to commitments; The TPP facilitates the development of production and supply chains, and
seamless trade, enhancing efficiency and supporting our goal of creating and supporting jobs, raising living
standards, enhancing conservation efforts, and facilitating cross-border integration, as well as opening domestic
markets.
 Addressing new trade challenges: The TPP promotes innovation, productivity, and competitiveness by addressing
new issues, including the development of the digital economy, and the role of state-owned enterprises in the global
economy.
 Inclusive trade: The TPP includes new elements that seek to ensure that economies at all levels of development and
businesses of all sizes can benefit from trade.
It includes commitments to help small- and medium-sized businesses understand the Agreement, take
advantage of its opportunities, and bring their unique challenges to the attention of the TPP governments.
It also includes specific commitments on development and trade capacity building, to ensure that all Parties are
able to meet the commitments in the Agreement and take full advantage of its benefits.
Platform for regional integration. The TPP is intended as a platform for regional economic integration and
designed to include additional economies across the Asia-Pacific region."
Implications:
Below is a summary of the 30 chapters of TPP's Schedules, definitions, annexes and chapters of the Agreement
related to goods and services trade, investment, government procurement, and temporary entry of business persons, in
addition to the State-Owned Enterprises chapter includes country-specific exceptions.
1. Initial Provisions and General Definitions:
 Many TPP Parties have existing agreements with one another. The Initial Provisions and General Definitions
Chapter recognizes that the TPP can coexist with other international trade agreements between the Parties,
including the WTO Agreement, bilateral, FTAs and regional agreements.
 It also provides definitions of terms used in more than one chapter of the Agreement.
2. Trade in Goods:
 TPP Parties agree to eliminate and reduce tariffs and non-tariff barriers on industrial goods, and agricultural
goods.
 The TPP will increase trade between the countries in this market of 800 million people and will support high-
quality jobs in all 12 Parties.
 Tariff elimination in industrial goods will be implemented immediately, tariffs on some products will be
eliminated over longer time frames as agreed by the TPP Parties.
 The specific tariff cuts agreed by the TPP Parties are included in schedules covering all goods.
 The TPP Parties will publish all tariffs and other information related to goods trade to ensure that small,
medium-sized and large businesses.
3. Textiles and Apparel:
 The TPP Parties agree to eliminate tariffs on textiles and apparel, industries which are important contributors
to economic growth in several TPP Parties’ markets.
 Most tariffs will be eliminated immediately, although tariffs on some sensitive products will be eliminated

over longer time frames as agreed by the TPP Parties.
4. Rules of Origin:
 To provide simple rules of origin, promote regional supply chains, and help ensure the TPP countries rather
than non-participants are the primary beneficiaries of the Agreement, the 12 Parties have agreed on a single set
of rules of origin that define whether a particular good is “originating” and therefore eligible to receive TPP
preferential tariff benefits.
 The product-specific rules of origin are attached to the text of the Agreement.
 The TPP provides for “accumulation, ” so that in general, inputs from one TPP Party are treated the same as
materials from any other TPP Party, if used to produce a product in any TPP Party.
5. Customs Administration and Trade Facilitation:
 Complementing their WTO efforts to facilitate trade, the TPP Parties have agreed on rules to enhance the
facilitation of trade, improve transparency in customs procedures, and ensure integrity in customs
administration.
 These rules will help TPP businesses, including small- and medium-sized businesses, by encouraging smooth
processing in customs and border procedures, and promote regional supply chains.
6. Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS):
 Measures In developing SPS rules, the TPP Parties have advanced their shared interest in ensuring transparent,
non-discriminatory rules based on science, and reaffirmed their right to protect human, animal or plant life or
health in their countries.
 The TPP builds on WTO SPS rules for identifying and managing risks in a manner that is no more trade
restrictive than necessary.
 TPP Parties agree to allow the public to comment on proposed SPS measures to inform their decision-making,
and to ensure traders understand the rules they will need to follow.
 They agree that import programmes are based on the risks associated with importations, and that import check
s are carried out without undue delay.
7. Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT):
 In developing TBT rules, the TPP Parties have agreed on transparent, non-discriminatory rules for developing
technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures, while preserving TPP Parties’ ability
to fulfill legitimate objectives.
 They agree to cooperate to ensure that technical regulations and standards do not create unnecessary barriers to
trade.
 To reduce costs for TPP businesses, especially small businesses, TPP Parties agree to rules that will facilitate
the acceptance of the results of Page 5 of 16 conformity assessment procedures from the conformity
assessment bodies in the other TPP Parties, making it easier for companies to access TPP markets.
 Under the TPP, Parties are required to allow for the public to comment on proposed technical regulations,
standards, and conformity assessment procedures to inform their regulatory processes and to ensure traders
understand the rules they will need to follow.
8. Trade Remedies:
 The Trade Remedies chapter promotes transparency and due process in trade remedy proceedings through
recognition of best practices, but does not affect the TPP Parties’ rights and obligations under the WTO.
 The chapter provides for a transitional safeguard mechanism, which allows a Party to apply a transitional
safeguard measure during a certain period of time if import increases as a result of the tariff cuts implemented
under the TPP cause serious injury to a domestic industry.
 These measures may be maintained for up to two years, with a one-year extension, but must be progressively
liberalized if they last longer than a year. Parties imposing safeguard measures must follow notification and
consultation requirements.
9. Investment:
 In establishing investment rules, the TPP Parties set out rules requiring non-discriminatory investment policies
and protections that assure basic rule of law protections, while protecting the ability of Parties’ governments to
achieve legitimate public policy objectives.
10.Cross-Border Trade in Services:
 Given the growing importance of services trade to TPP Parties, the 12 countries share an interest in liberalized
trade in this area.
 TPP includes core obligations found in the WTO and other trade agreements: national treatment; most
favoured nation treatment; market access, which provides that no TPP country may impose quantitative
restrictions on the supply of services (e.g ., a limit on the number of suppliers or number of transactions) or
require a specific type of legal entity or joint venture; and local presence, which means that no country may

require a supplier from another country to establish an office or affiliate, or to be resident, in its territory in
order to supply a service.
11. Financial Services:
 The TPP Financial Services chapter will provide important cross-border and investment market access
opportunities, while ensuring that Parties will retain the ability to regulate financial markets and institutions
and to take emergency measures in the event of crisis.
 The chapter includes core obligations found in other trade agreements, including: national treatment; most-
favored nation treatment; market access; and certain provisions under the Investment chapter, including the
minimum standard of treatment.
12.Temporary Entry for Business Persons:
 The Temporary Entry for Business Persons chapter encourages authorities of TPP Parties to provide
information on applications for temporary entry, to ensure that application fees are reasonable, and to make
decisions on applications and inform applicants of decisions as quickly as possible.
 TPP Parties agree to ensure that information on requirements for temporary entry are readily available to the
public, including by publishing information promptly and online if possible, and providing explanatory
materials.
 The Parties agree to ongoing cooperation on temporary entry issues such as visa processing.
13.Telecommunications:
 TPP Parties share an interest in ensuring efficient and reliable telecommunications networks in their countries.
 These networks are critical to companies both large and small for providing services.
 TPP’s pro-competitive network access rules cover mobile suppliers.
 TPP Parties commit to ensure that major telecommunications services suppliers in their territory provide
interconnection, leased circuit services, co-location, and access to poles and other facilities under reasonable
terms and conditions and in a timely manner.
14.Electronic Commerce:
 In the Electronic Commerce chapter, TPP Parties commit to ensuring free flow of the global information and
data that drive the Internet and the digital economy, subject to legitimate public policy objectives such as
personal information protection.
 The 12 Parties also agree not to require that TPP companies build data centers to store data as a condition for
operating in a TPP market, and, in addition, that source code of software is not required to be transferred or
accessed.
15.Government Procurement:
 TPP Parties share an interest in accessing each others large government procurement markets through
transparent, predictable, and non-discriminatory rules.
 In the Government Procurement chapter, TPP Parties commit to core disciplines of national treatment and non-
discrimination.
16.Competition Policy:
 TPP Parties share an interest in ensuring a framework of fair competition in the region through rules that
require TPP Parties to maintain legal regimes that prohibit anti-competitive business conduct, as well as
fraudulent and deceptive commercial activities that harm consumers.
 TPP Parties agree to adopt or maintain national competition laws that proscribe anti-competitive business
conduct and work to apply these laws to all commercial activities in their territories.
17. State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and Designated Monopolies:
 All TPP Parties have SOEs, which often play a role in providing public services and other activities, but TPP
Parties recognize the benefit of agreeing on a framework of rules on SOEs.
 The SOE chapter covers large SOEs that are principally engaged in commercial activities.
 Parties agree to ensure that their SOE s make commercial purchases and sales on the basis of commercial
considerations, except when doing so would be inconsistent with any mandate under which an SOE is
operating that would require it to provide public services.
18.Intellectual Property:
 TPP’s Intellectual Property (IP) chapter covers patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial designs,
geographical indications, trade secrets, other forms of intellectual property, and enforcement of intellectual
property rights, as well as areas in which Parties agree to cooperate.
 The IP chapter will make it easier for businesses to search, register, and protect IP rights in new markets,
which is particularly important for small businesses.
19.Labour:
 All TPP Parties are International Labour Organization (ILO) members and recognize the importance of

promoting internationally recognized labour rights.
 TPP Parties agree to adopt and maintain in their laws and practices the fundamental labour rights as
recognized in the ILO 1998 Declaration, namely freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining;
elimination of forced labour; abolition of child labour and a prohibition on the worst forms of child labour; and
elimination of discrimination in employment.
20.Environment:
 As home to a significant portion of the world’s people, wildlife, plants and marine species, TPP Parties share a
strong commitment to protecting and conserving the environment, including by working together to address
environmental challenges, such as pollution, illegal wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, illegal fishing, and
protection of the marine environment.
 The 12 Parties agree to effectively enforce their environmental laws; and not to weaken environmental laws in
order to encourage trade or investment.
21.Cooperation and Capacity Building:
 The economies of the 12 TPP Parties are diverse. All Parties recognise that the TPP lesser-developed Parties
may face particular challenges in implementing the Agreement, and in taking full advantage of the
opportunities it creates.
 To address these challenges, the Cooperation and Capacity Building chapter establishes a Committee on
Cooperation and Capacity Building to identify and review areas for potential cooperative and capacity
building efforts.
22.Competitiveness and Business Facilitation:
 The Competitiveness and Business Facilitation chapter aims to help the TPP reach its potential to improve the
competitiveness of the participating countries, and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.
 The chapter creates formal mechanisms to review the impact of the TPP on competitiveness of the Parties,
through dialogues among governments and between government, business, and civil society, with a particular
focus on deepening regional supply chains, to assess progress, take advantage of new opportunities, and
address any challenges that may emerge once the TPP is in force.
23.Development:
 The TPP Parties seek to ensure that the TPP will be a high-standard model for trade and economic integration,
and in particular to ensure that all TPP Parties can obtain the complete benefits of the TPP, are fully able to
implement their commitments, and emerge as more prosperous societies with strong markets.
24.Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises:
 TPP Parties have a shared interest in promoting the participation of small- and medium-sized enterprises in
trade and to ensure that small - and medium-sized enterprises share in the benefits of the TPP.
 Complementing the commitments throughout other chapters of the TPP on market access, paperwork
reduction, Internet access, trade facilitation, express delivery and others, the Small- and Medium-Sized
Enterprise chapter includes commitments by each TPP Party to create a user-friendly websites targeted at
small- and medium-sized enterprise users to provide easily accessible information on the TPP and ways small
firms can take advantage of it, including description of the provisions of TPP relevant to small- and medium-
sized enterprises; regulations and procedures concerning intellectual property rights; foreign investment
regulations; business registration procedures; employment regulations; and taxation information.
25.Regulatory Coherence:
 TPP’s Regulatory Coherence chapter will help ensure an open, fair, and predictable regulatory environment for
businesses operating in the TPP markets by encouraging transparency, impartiality, and coordination across
each government to achieve a Page 14 of 16 coherent regulatory approach.
 The chapter aims to facilitate regulatory coherence in each TPP country by promoting mechanisms for
effective inter agency consultation and coordination for agencies. It encourages widely-accepted good
regulatory practices, such as impact assessments of proposed regulatory measures, communication of the
grounds for the selection of chosen regulatory alternatives and the nature of the regulation being introduced.
26.Transparency and Anti-Corruption:
 The TPP’s Transparency and Anti-Corruption chapter aims to promote the goal, shared by all TPP Parties, of
strengthening good governance and addressing the corrosive effects bribery and corruption can have on their
economies.
 Under the Transparency and Anti-Corruption chapter, TPP Parties need to ensure that their laws, regulations,
and administrative rulings of general application with respect to any matter covered by the TPP are publicly
available and that, to the extent possible, regulations that are likely to affect trade or investment between the
Parties are subject to notice and comment.
27.Administrative and Institutional Provisions:

 The Administrative and Institutional Provisions Chapter sets out the institutional framework by which the
Parties will assess and guide implementation or operation of the TPP, in particular by establishing the Trans-
Pacific Partnership Commission, composed of Ministers or senior level officials, to oversee the
implementation or operation of the Agreement and guide its future evolution.
 This Commission will review the economic Page 15 of 16 relationship and partnership among the Parties on a
periodic basis to ensure that the Agreement remains relevant to the trade and investment challenges
confronting the Parties.
28.Dispute Settlement:
 The Dispute Settlement chapter is intended to allow Parties to expeditiously address disputes between them
over implementation of the TPP.
 TPP Parties will make every attempt to resolve disputes through cooperation and consultation and encourage
the use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms when appropriate.
 When this is not possible, TPP Parties aim to have these disputes resolved through impartial, unbiased panels.
29.Exceptions:
 The Exceptions Chapter ensures that flexibility are available to all TPP Parties that guarantee full rights to
regulate in the public interest, including for a Party’s essential Page 16 of 16 security interest and other public
welfare reasons.
 This chapter incorporates the general exceptions provided for in Article XX of the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade 1994 to the goods trade-related provisions, specifying that nothing in the TPP shall be
construed to prevent the adoption or enforcement by a Party of measures necessary to, among other things,
protect public morals, protect human, animal or plant life or health, protect intellectual property, enforce
measures relating to products of prison labour, and measures relating to conservation of exhaustible natural
resources.
30.Final Provisions:
 The Final Provisions chapter defines the way the TPP will enter into force, the way in which it can be amended, the
rules that establish the process for other States or separate customs territories to join the TPP in the future, the
means by which Parties can withdraw, and the authentic languages of the TPP.
Criticisms:
A number of global health professionals, internet freedom activists, environmentalists, trade unions, advocacy
groups, and elected officials have criticized and protested against the treaty, in large part because of the secrecy of
negotiations, the agreement's expansive scope, and controversial clauses in drafts leaked to the public.
Conclusion:
The successful initiative of TPP has opened a new sea route for international trade as far as trans-pacific nations are
concern The agreement's stated goals such as, to "promote economic growth; support the creation and retention of jobs;
enhance innovation, productivity and competitiveness; raise living standards; reduce poverty in the countries; and promote
transparency, good governance, and enhanced labor and environmental protections, these all should be adhere by both
developed and other countries without any disparity. The other stated goals contains measures to lower trade barriers such
as tariffs, and establish an investor-dispute settlement mechanism should be downloaded to under-developed countries in
that area and it should enable seamless operations in implementation without any inequality among nations .
References:
1. http://26t4l93f9dhe439yxm286lpv.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/TPPcountriesmap.jpg.
2. https://www.mfat.govt.nz/assets/_securedfiles/Trans-Pacific-Partnership/TPP12-summary-of-the-Agreement.pdf
3. http://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/all/files/TPP-Q&A-Oct-2015.pdf
4. http://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/all/files/TPP-Q&A-Oct-2015.pdf
5. https://www.mfat.govt.nz/assets/_securedfiles/trans-pacific-partnership/text/1.-initial-provisions-and-general-
definitions-chapter.pdf
6. https://dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/tpp/Documents/tpp-overview.pdf
7. www.globalresearch.ca/the-full...of...trans-pacific-partnership-tpp/5486887
8. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/PAGE_TPP_REPORT.pdf
9. https://wikileaks.org/tpp...TPP.../WikiLeaks-TPP-IP-Chapter-051015.pdf
10. https://ustr.gov/...agreements/...agreements/trans-pacific-partnership/tpp-f

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